


Missing His Mate

by 29PheonixLement



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:29:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/29PheonixLement/pseuds/29PheonixLement
Summary: Tumbler prompt:  Remus pleading to tonks to accept him after he ran away when tonks was pregnant
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30





	Missing His Mate

**Author's Note:**

> Alright so this wasn't exactly to prompt and much, much longer than first anticipated, but I hope it's still acceptable. Happy Reading. 
> 
> (Bolded text borrowed from Harry Potter Book 7 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows chapter 11 The Bribe)

His anger over Harry’s words is still strong so much so that he is initially surprised he hadn’t splinched himself once he disaperated from Grimmauld Place.

**_“The man who taught me to fight Dementors a coward.”_ **

Couldn’t Harry have seen that Remus was doing the best he could in keeping not only his wife but also his unborn son or daughter safe by staying as far away as possible?

**_“My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he’d tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?”_ **

Again, the reminder played like a broken record in his mind. As if he needed one. He knew all too well the sacrifice James made the night he and Lily both lost their lives.

 ** _“If the new regime thinks Muggle-borns are bad, what will they do to a half-werewolf whose father’s in the Order?”_** Harry had once again touched on a perfect reason for Lupin to stay as far away from his newly formed family as possible. One parent in the Order was bad enough but for the child to have both parents was surely a death sentence in itself.

And then for him to bring up Sirius like that.

Lupin stopped walking his hands still stuffed inside the pockets of his patched jacket and decided to take a seat on a nearby bench until he’d at least gotten his ragged breathing back under control. He couldn’t do anything about the angry shaking in his hands at the moment as he took in an even deeper breath of the London air.

Remus will admit that maybe in his younger days he had been more a daredevil as Harry had suggested but for him to bring that up now was stomach-turning. No, like he had tried to explain to Harry earlier he wasn’t in this for the danger or the glory or whatever else the teenager had thought of him but merely a last-ditch effort of a nervous even terrified old man unwilling to risk losing not only James and Lily’s son but Sirius’s godson to this newest bloody war.

Why couldn’t he see that while Remus was protecting Harry, he was also protecting his own newly created family as well? Besides if anyone was as much of a daredevil as Padfoot had been it was surly his lavender haired, badger spirited force of terrifying nature angel that was his wife and the mother of his child.

After all it had taken not only himself but Andromeda, Ted, Molly, Arthur, _and_ Kingsley to talk Nymphadora into going into hiding in the first place after they’d barely gotten her out alive during the attack and Bill and Fleur’s wedding. That had been before the baby of course but even then, Tonks hadn’t taken to hiding away lightly. No, she’d wanted to be in the thick of it fighting off every black-cloaked Death Eater that dared cross her path to protect everyone she could while all Remus wanted was his wife as safe and protected as she could be in these dark times.

No, he was right to stay away. Nymphadora didn’t need him

With a shaking breath, Remus slid both his still shaking hands into his graying hair it was only when he’d lifted his head did, he realize where he had to go if he wanting to truly ease his mind on that subject.

He just prayed he was still welcome.

Remus had just finished packing up the few belonging he’d managed to pull together after walking out if his house with just his wand and the clothes on his back when an answering wisp of sliver formed into the glowing form of a fox before his eyes. As soon as it had dissolved after delivering its message, however, Remus knew:

This was his ultimately final chance to prove to not only Dora but also her parents that he was serious about his relationship with them.

*****

It was only a shade or two difference in hair color that told the two apart as Andromeda Tonks glared at him while he dusted himself off. Her wand thought held low against her body, so it was nearly hidden from view at first glance aimed right at his heart.

“The only reason Ted and I are allowing this is because Dora wanted it.” She tells him.

Just behind her passed the trees stood the house protecting his wife and child. Again, memories both good and painful began filling his mind just at the sight of it passed the shimmer of the fidelius charm.

“I’m well aware that Polyjuice doesn’t work on _your kind_ …” Andromeda continues stepping back into Remus’s sightline. Lupin represses a wince at the way she says ‘Your kind’ but then again, he knew he deserved the cold shoulder and so much more considering what he’d done to her daughter.

“Ask away.” Remus nodes his hands rather foolish given the times raised and open in an obvious show of surrender.

Andromeda rolls her eyes at that “For heaven’s sake boy put your hands down.” She barks and just like that just a hint of the warmth he’d once fought so hard to gain resurfaced as the pair held eye contact, but it was gone just as quickly seeing as her aim at his heart never wavers while she clears her throat to speak again. “The last words Remus Lupin said to my daughter?”

Remus swallows the painful lump in his throat before he answers. “This is for the best Dora. You and this child are better off without me.”

If anything, Andromeda’s eyes grew even colder but her wand arm drops just a little. “Well?” she prompts her gaze never wavering from his.

“The last thing Andromeda Tonks….” Remus started to ask but his mother in law beat him to it.

“You hurt my daughter again Remus John Lupin and you will know the full extent of the fury that comes with upsetting a female member of the Noble House of Black.” Remus swallowed seeing the curl of her lips as she smiles and the way she tightened her grip on her wand as she tosses her long wavy hair back over one shoulder reminding him all over again of who this woman’s sister was.

Andromeda nodded to herself finally feeling safe enough to stow away her wand yet Remus noted that although she’d slipped the thing back into her pocket her hand didn’t relax as she kept a hand resting on the hilt as she steps closer.

“Andra….” Remus started to apologize but a hard slap quieted him. He staggers from the force of the first only for a second much harder one against the other cheek to follow as he loses his balance and drops to his knees while Andromeda looms over him her tone as cold as the artic itself as she kneels as well tilting his chin up with the tip of her wand. “Like I’ve said. The only reason I’m not hexing you where you stand is my daughter loves you.”

*****

“Come on Pup I thought we’d talked about giving mommy a break from this once and a while.”

Remus felt a smile tug at his lips as he stepped farther into the kitchen while Andromeda closed the door behind them just as his grumpy wife her hair back to its heartbreaking mousy brown color reaches the doorway leading to the living room.

“To be fair this is a full two minutes longer than the other times so in a way….” Remus’s eyes widen in surprise at the tone before Ginny had fully stepped out into the hallway herself as she offers a steadying arm for the pregnant mother. “I think this trip is more because of the gallon of cocoa you downed earlier….” The youngest of the Weasley’s starts off but pauses when she unlike Tonks notices the two standing by the back door.

“Not my fault this pup has his father’s chocolate obsession and won’t let me drink anything else.” Tonks defends in a groan once again more than grateful for the hallway bathroom when the comment earns another hard kick to her bladder. “Okay, okay. Sorry, I bad-mouthed Daddy again.” she sighed while Ginny tugged them to a stop as Tonks’s hand rubbed at her belly. “Jeez he’s not even here and you’re already a Daddy’s boy.” she huffed waving Ginny off as soon as the pair make it to the bathroom door.

“Take your time. I’ll go make a fresh round of cocoa.” Ginny promises hovering just in case as Tonks takes the last few steps on her own.

“Have I told you you’re my favorite little sister?” Tonks asks with the smallest hint of a real smile earning a shrugged grin from the red-haired teenager “Once or twice the last day or so.” She nodes her smile quickly fads as soon as the door clicks closed as she rounds on her second favorite DADA teacher. Her first being Harry of course.

“Why are you here Lupin?” The fiery-haired teenager snapped tossing her long red-toned hair back over her shoulder in a move so like Lily it made Remus wince even more than the harsh bite of her question. “Weeks she said. You’ve left them for weeks.”

Remus hung his head in shame. Why hadn’t he just let Dromeda hex him?

“I’ve already laid into him pretty deep Gin.” His wife’s mother whispers obviously trying to avoid being overheard by the keen-eared Auror yet to come out of the restroom.

“Tonks’s is the closest to a sister I have, and he hurt her.” Ginny shoots back. “No, he did more than that.”

Lupin winces as if the words where actually physical blows as Ginny’s eyes meet his own. Right now, he’d just prefer if they would start hitting him. “You broke her Remus.”

The sound of the sink running over the flush of the toilet sidetracks any of the pitiful apologies bouncing around in the ex-professor’s head.

“Oh, hi Mum how was your wal….” Tonks stops her Auror training kicking in making her reach for a wand she’d foolishly left sitting on the table beside the sofa in the sitting room as she rounds on the intruder. “Gin toss us your wand yeah?” she asks her eyes cold as she turns toward the red-haired teenager standing behind her newly returned husband.

Ginny snickered but shakes her head “You’ll thank me in a month or so. You know when you start to forgive the git.” She sighed adding a dusting of peppermint into the mug she then carried over to the angry mother.

“Will not.” Tonks snarls lifting the mug to her lips for a deep inhale of the chocolaty scent before draining half of it in one long sip her eyes never once breaking from the bowed head of her husband standing by the door.

“Hu-huh.” Ginny smiles playfully nudging her shoulder against Tonks’s that for once doesn’t cause the darker haired woman to drop the mug she was still nursing her she brings it yet again toward her lips.

An apple hits his chest as if whoever had thrown it had seen just how spiraled Remus’s thought had become once he was faced with the glaring product of his time away from his wife his family. A second one connects even harder than the first making him wince as it dropped into the floor at his feet. He looks up just in time to catch Tonks tossing a third onto the air that Ginny catches almost as smoothly as James would pluck the snitch out of the air every time he’d nick it to try and impress Lily with difficult catches during down periods.

“Go for his head this time.” His wife instructs with a pleased grin that once again reminds the dazed werewolf of another of the Black family members as Ginny takes aim. Remus doesn’t flinch or really move in any way as the blood-colored fruit was sent flying out of the youngest Weasley’s hand.

“Alright girls that’s enough,” Andromeda calls out stopping the apple inches from connecting with her son in law’s face. “Yes, he deserves it and more.” She agrees plucking the thing out of the air while Tonks and Ginny glare. “But we also need to start on supper soon.” She reminds her eyes sliding more toward her daughter as she continued speaking. “Your father sent word he may be able to stop by and I want to be ready.”

That at least brought some light to Tonks’s eyes.

“Are you sure that will be safe?” Remus piped up

Three sets of eyes snapped toward him, but he held up his hands and carried on. “I only mean that won’t Ted’s best…”

“Unlike you Dad actually cares” Tonks answers.

The anger he’d thought had cooled days ago after his fight with Harry reared up again, causing an honest to Merlin growl filled the kitchen making two of the tree women cringes at the sound but Tonks rolls her eyes with a lazy. “Are you finished?”

“I care too Nymphadora.”

“Don’t call me that Lupin.” His wife shoots back knowing full well how much he hated anyone using his sir name when she was upset like this. As if to prove her point Remus growls again lowing in his throat but Tonks’s scoffs waving off the panicked looks from the other two with a bored sounding “He’s all bark right now the moon is nowhere near full.” Making both breath a little easier enough that Andromeda and Ginny back away one pulling out a cutting board while the other turned back to the table to collect a few of the remaining apples in the bowl in the middle of the table letting the couple go at it while also being available should things become any more heated.

“Why do you think I left in the first place?” Remus asks flat out.

“Because you’re an idiot.” His wife answers but before he could do more than open his mouth to try once again to defend himself Tonks is talking her eyes never wavering from his. “Before you go ranting again, I don’t give two shakes of Merlin’s left Knut about any of those pathetic accuses you keep going on about.”

Remus blinked fighting a grin when he like Andromeda and Ginny notice how Tonks's hair had taken on a more darkened red tone to it in her anger that none of them pay much attention while she parrots a few lines for them as she pulls herself to her feet and Remus dares to take a few steps closer.

“You broke my heart.”

Remus hung his head struggling to keep from getting on his knees and begging her to give him another chance he didn’t even believe he deserved “I was trying to pro….”

A wand none of them didn’t realize she had was in her hand a half-second later the end of it digging into the ex-professor’s chest so hard the front of his sweater started smoking where wand tip met fabric “Finish that stupid excuse and I’m gluing your tongue to the roof of your mouth then hexing you to the sofa in the basement and locking you in until our pup is out of Hogwarts.”

Ginny and Andromeda both chuckled while continuing to prepare a different part of what Lupin guessed would soon become dinner whilst still listening in on the bickering back and forth between the reunited couple.

“Once a month Remus you only change once a ruddy month but the rest of the time, you’re the same old book reading, chocolate-loving idiot I fell in love with the first time I met you.” Only herself, her mother, and Remus understood she wasn’t talking about the first Order meeting she attended like Ginny would no doubt assume.

That had been the second first meeting between the pair.

The first was when Sirius’s aunt had stopped by the Potter estate to check up on her favored nephew staying over during the holidays that mostly entailed the teenagers to watch over her young daughter who was at that point sporting a shocking mane of bubblegum pink hair.

Tonks who had just turned five years old by then had taken to following the trio around or mainly followed a teenaged Remus around as they explored the hidden secrets of James’s family house and its grounds. Peter had been sent home earlier in the week under the fear, he was suffering from some new kind of blood malediction that just turned out to be a serious case of scrofungulus.

The visit ending with younger Tonks making a then dramatic change of her hair color from shocking pink to a much softer shade of lavender after hearing Remus confessing how much he liked the shade of the flowers decorating the table that morning then proudly telling everyone sitting at the breakfast table that she was going to marry Remus some day much to the amusement of everyone at the table especially the ‘teenaged groom’s’ two best friends.

“I needed you--- _We_ needed you and you left us.” Tonks snarls jarring her husband back to the present as her hands fall over the prominent bump of her stomach as she spoke having already handed Ginny back her wand. “You left _us_.” She repeated her voice breaking as more hot tears spilled from her eyes.

Remus’s eyes go wide when he finally notices how much times had passes since, he left to go looking for Harry, Hermione, and Ron not that they’d made the job easy by any means, but mostly keeping on the move to distance himself from the wife and unborn child.

“Nymphadora---”

A hard slap sends him staggering back a few steps to a loud repeated shout of “You left us.”. Amber tinted eyes meet watery gray ones but for the life of him, Remus can’t remember one line of the full pleading speech he’d been rehearsing in his head since he’d decided to return to his family.

“I know full well what I did to you both.” Remus confesses already feeling a bruise forming over his jaw from the Mother, Daughter assaults his cheek had taken since his arrival. His hands fisted at his sides to keep from reaching out himself to rest a hand against his wife’s stomach. Not that he deserves that privilege after what he’s done but he still longs for it all the same as he watches the way Dora caresses the swelled bump under the oversized rocker t-shirt for some Muggle band called ‘the Runaways’

“Do you?” Tonks scoffed but Remus’s hand shot out closing in warning around her wrist when she raised her hand a second time.

“Let go.” His wife snarled but Remus held on. “Let me go, Lupin.” Tonks repeated her free hand moving to grip her husband’s wrist in return to pry his hand away if she had to. This time he listened, not only loosening his hold enough that she was able to free herself, but also staggering back several tripped steps.

“You took it off.” He choked out raw pain dripping from each syllable of those four simple words as his knees finally face out on him sending him down onto the floor in front of her.

Tonks blinked puzzled by the rasped comment as she rubbed her bruised wrist with her free hand. Sometimes her husband really forgot just how strong he was. Especially when he let his emotions run wild. “What in the name of Merlin….” She started honestly needing clarification, but it was Ginny who answered instead.

“Your ring Tonks.” Her surrogate sister offers pointing with a potato skin covered kitchen knife at the bare place on her left hand where once sat the simple glittering ring her husband given her on their wedding day.

“Oh.” Was all she could think of to say at the realization dawned on her.

He could see her black and gold slipper covered feet when she stepped over to him, but he didn’t lift his head. “Rem?” she whispered her hands sliding into his hair. “Remus.” She tried again but just like before her stubborn husband refused to lift his head while his shoulders shook in quiet sobs.

“Dora. Sweetheart don’t.”

“Tonks, come on don’t….”

The pregnant woman ignored the twin comments as she lowered herself down to her husband’s level with a groan at the effort. “Wotcher, you chocolate loving idiot.” She whispers forcing his head up with a soft touch under his chin while her other arm draped over his shoulder in comfort. If ever there was a human equivalent of a kicked puppy expression the one, she was now looking at was surely it.

“You took it off.” Remus hiccupped a few more tears sliding down his cheeks as he forced the words out.

Tonks nodded dropping one of the arms she had draped around his shoulders to the front of her shirt to pull up the chain of the necklace he hadn’t noticed she was wearing. “Turns out having a baby really chubs up a girl’s fingers.” The young Auror comments bringing the chain out from under the collar of her shirt for him to see. “So, wearing jewelry is a real challenge especially when our pup messes with Mommy’s abilities to change her appearance when she wants.” She chuckles letting her wedding band fall against her chest while her hand rests against her stomach in a soft caress.

“Why do you keep saying that?” Remus sniffed not trusting to ask about what he really wanted to know. He had a good idea and having her confirm it would break him.

“Cause your son seems to be a natural animagus professor.” Ginny laughed pointing with a mixing spoon to a moving sonogram image tacked to the front of the refrigerator. “Furry tail and everything.”

Remus blinks in shock “Wh---Wh---What?” he stammered sure he’d heard her wrong.

Tonks laughs allowed at the dumbfounded look her husband was now sporting. A real fully laugh. One none of them had heard from her since Bill and Flur’s wedding as she welcomed the help her mother and Ginny offered in pulling her to her feet again.

“Come on you.” Andromeda sighs offering a hand to Remus.

“Tired.” Tonks yawned as if all the fight had drained out of her. Ginny nodes her arm wrapped around the older woman’s back to steady her while Andromeda starts to tug an unsteady Remus Lupin over to the kitchen table. “No.” a sleepy voice groaned before they could reach it.

As one mother and son in law turn to the other two to find Tonks holding out her hand with what could only be described as an annoyed puppy pout on her face but it was her hair that really drew the pairs gaze.

Mousy brown and _Lavender_.

“Missed you.” Tonks smiles when Remus slowly moved to take the outstretched hand in his own.

“I missed you too love.” He whispered back hooking his free arm under her knees to pull her bridal style into his arms as he carried her back to the living room for some rest.

*****

The harsh rattling of a teacup drags the tired wolf from the few precious moments of sleep.

“What?!”

“Will you please keep your voice down.”

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one the noise upset if the mumbled groans against his chest were anything to go by. Rather than add to it even with a few soothing whispered words Remus wordlessly shifted closer to the sleeping Auror in his arms the move seeming to calm her as she snuggled more against his chest her head now firmly pillowed under his chin while the rest of her continued to effortlessly pin him in place.

Remus had finished fixing one of the many blankets back over his wife’s shoulders when another hissed sound floated in from the kitchen.

“Edward Tonks get back here and finish your tea and let those three rest.”

“I still can’t believe you let him…” his father in law’s tired voice answers in the same whisper shouting tone as his wife but it seemed he’d done as asked going by the groan of the chair and the much softer rattle of the cup as it was picked back up.

“You know as well as I do how much Dora loves him, Ted.” Andromeda cuts in earning a weak smile from her eavesdropping son in law. “Sometimes I can’t help but think their love puts our lovely romance to shame.”

Ted grunts instead of actually answering but by the scrap of his chair, Remus guesses he’d gotten up again. “I wouldn’t go that far Dromeda.” He counters. “I mean any kind of romance in these troubled times is incredible. Let alone a rocky one like theirs.” He reminds “Even if the boy has hurt her more times than any reasonable father would….”

“You are more than a responsible father Ted.” Andromeda counters

“Dad?” Remus immediately stiffens at the more awakened sounding mumbled from his wife at her father’s name. It's only when grey eyes find amber green that Tonks stills as well blinking the last of the sleep from her eyes as the hand not still fisted in the front of Remus’s shirt drops to rest over the growing bump that was her – their—baby. “This isn’t a dream, right?” she whispered just loud enough for her husband to hear her.

Remus gives her a wary smile as he rests his hand over her own against his shirt front. “This is real, Dora.”

Tonks lets out a weak breath as she steeled back against her husband’s side giving him a proper look over. “Ouch.” Soft fingers brush the marks against his cheek from the mother, daughter attack but for once Remus doesn’t wince at the sting. “I’ve had worse.” He promises.

“Think we missed dinner.” Tonks notes nuzzling her cheek against his collarbone while he tucks the blanket back around her shoulders while they listen to the soft notes of some smooth muggle love song playing in the kitchen. “Do we dare?” the older marauder asks his nerves getting the better of him as he meets his wife’s tired yet happy gaze.

A rumbling stomach answers the question for them as both take another sniff of cooked food on the air. “Was that yours or ours?” Tonks chuckles while her husband shrugs.

“Come on pup. Time to say hi to Grandpa.” Tonks coos her hand against her stomach while Remus slides an arm around her back and another under her knees to help her up. “We can walk you know?” she reminds as she looped her arms around his neck to steady herself not that she was opposed to having her husband carry her around seeing as instead of setting her on her feet like she’d expected Lupin simply held on tighter as he started back toward the kitchen.

“Moony missed his mate.” The old wolf shrugs pressing a light kiss to the side of her head "Seems like they already sent Ginny home as well." he noted in a low whisper as the pair paused in the hallway to watch the sweet scene playing out in the kitchen.

True Tonks had caught her parents slow dancing in the kitchen many times when she was younger, so much so that it had become something of a game to her in creeping down the stairs in her mismatched silvery green and silvery blue socks to peek into the kitchen from her hiding place halfway up to watch them wondering if that night would be another time their dreamy-eyed state would burn dinner, but this time seemed different.

Not only was dinner already properly prepared and laid out to cool on the kitchen table but it was something else. A worrying sense of foreboding as she noted how her mother’s hold around her father’s back, while they swayed to the slow rhythm of the music, was tighter. Stronger. Almost as strong as she was holding on to her own newly returned husband. As if when she would let go, she would utterly lose him for the last and final time.

“Afternoon sleepy heads.” Ted Tonks greets catching sight of them on the next swaying turn just as the song was coming to a close speaking more to his daughter than to the man holding her.

“Daddy.” Tonks smiles grinning happily when Remus helpfully carried her closer so she could give her father a greeting hug.

“Hello, my heroic rainbow.” Ted smiles making his daughter giggle at her childhood nickname that he never seemed to stop using for her. Although he had amended it after she’d finished her Auror training trading out the ‘little’ title for the more adult ‘heroic’ which she was grateful for. “We’ve been waiting for you,” he explains nodding to the already laid out table. “Thought it’d be nice if the five of us all sat down to supper together.” Ted smiled this time even clapping a hand against his son-in-law's shoulder as Remus goes for the stove for another mug of hot chocolate that Lupin guiltily returns with a stiff node.

“Sounds Perfect.” Tonks grins her hair now completely back to its normal shade of soft lavender.


End file.
